Quiet Meg Read Online Free PDF Page B

forced to lose theirs.
    Bertie entered the hall and spotted them on the stair.
    “What are you two doing up there? We’ve been waiting
to go in to supper. You can have your natter later. Meggie,
come meet Cabot”
    She linked her arm through Lucy’s as they descended
the last flight of steps, ashamed that she should cling to her
little sister as though to a crutch. But she kept her chin high.
    He was standing at her father’s side, in front of the fire.
She noted everything about him at once-his height, his
shoulders, his face, his eyes. For a second the drawing room, so familiar to her, seemed foreign. I have never been
here before, she thought, lost in his deep brown gaze. Then
she looked away, and smiled at her father.

    “Meg, may I present Mr. Charles Cabot, architect and
landscaper without equal. Cabot, this is m’sister, Margaret”
Bertie had somehow managed to pry her from Lucy and
push her forward.
    “How do you do, Mr. Cabot,” she said. She found herself
unable to raise her gaze above his neckcloth.
    “I am delighted to make your acquaintance, Miss
Lawrence” His voice was low and calm. This time he bowed
formally, gallantly. She noticed that his dark blond hair
caught the firelight. But his gaze shot up to capture her
own. “I have admired your kitchen garden”
    “Oh-” She struggled with the compliment, even as she
watched a slow smile grace his face. “You must not make
too much of a few herbs, Mr. Cabot. They grow almost like
weeds” As he straightened, her attention fled once again to
his neckcloth.
    “They are most agreeably placed weeds, Miss Lawrence”
    Meg focused on her father.
    “Father, you must tell Mr. Cabot how disagreeable the
process was by which we planted that garden. I believe you
thought me stubborn”
    “Indeed. You were a terror, Meg. You had the entire staff
trembling for months. I shall never recover. But you were
only sixteen, m’dear. And as Cabot says, the results were well
worth it. I am only thankful”-and he winked at Cabot”that his own improvements have not been as disruptive”
    “Perhaps they will be-now that Meggie is home,” Bertie
suggested.

    All of them laughed.
    “I would appreciate Miss Lawrence’s advice,” Cabot
said politely.
    “Ah, do not wish it, my boy,” her father said. “Not if you
still intend to finish by the end of the month.”
    So soon! Meg hoped her face did not show her dismay.
Yet she should have been glad.
    I would like to see your plans, Mr. Cabot,” she said, this
time looking to the fire instead of his neckcloth.
    “I would like to show them to you, Miss Lawrence”
    “But not just now,” Bertie said, “for I am famished,” and
grabbing Meg’s hand he drew her quickly across the hall to
the dining room. “What do you think?” he asked as he hovered next to her.
    She had no time to respond, as her father and Lucy and
Cabot had followed them into the dining room. Lucy sat directly across from her. Cabot kindly helped position her father’s chair at the head of the table, then took the seat to
Lucy’s left.
    “I understand you rode up to the north park this afternoon,” Bertie quizzed Cabot. “I thought we were to do that
on the morrow?”
    “We shall, Lawrence. Naturally I-was unable to address the task we’d discussed.”
    “What do you intend with the north woods, Charles?”
Lucy asked, and Meg stared-surprised that her sister should
address him so casually.
    “It could use some thinning to open cross views to the
surrounding countryside. Just now it is quite a wilderness.
A difficult ride, much less a walk. I wished your brother’s
thoughts regarding its best use. The house cannot be seen from its furthest reaches, nor”-he paused-“can it be
seen in its entirety from the house.”

    “Perhaps we should take Meggie tomorrow morning as
well,” Bertie suggested.
    “I shouldn’t think that at all advisable.”
    He spoke so abruptly that Meg forgot she was